On the Road to the Final Four

A paragraph about driving, in case you skipped the link: One great reason to drive is because there’s stuff on the road you just can’t see from an airplane. In Wagoner, Okla., I sat through a stoplight, amused by the marquee in front of a firearms store: “Closed Friday and Saturday. Gun Show in Tulsa.” A little while after that, I drove through Checotah, which used to have an official state-approved road sign at the city limit: “Home of Carrie Underwood, American Idol 2005.” That sign is gone now, apparently because the state’s time limit on such signs ran out. The new sign is bigger, but it’s well off the road — beyond the fence that delineates public highway property and other land. I’m betting the owner of said land gets a few bucks for allowing the sign on his property, but I might be wrong. He, or she, could be a big fan and thrilled beyond thrilled to hype Ms. Underwood’s connection to Checotah.

It’s an 800-mile trip from Peoria to Dallas, and I could do it in my sleep. Almost. I worked in Dallas, at the old Times-Herald, back in the 1980s, so I got familiar with the trip then. I wound up passing through a couple of times in the ’90s, but ever since the calendar turned to the 21st century, I almost feel like I should set up a second residence. Covered the 2003 national figure-skating championships here. Helped our middle son, Luke, move down here before he and Tiffany got married in 2006, when Luke enrolled at Dallas Theological Seminary. He and Tiff are missionaries now; in fact, getting ready to return to Zambia later this month with their infant son, Michael, but that’s another story. My wife, MaryFran, and I visited several times while Luke was a student. I made a road trip here for the 2008 Cotton Bowl, when the venerable football game was still played at the Cotton Bowl. Passed through a couple more times en route to San Antonio. Came down here last year for an NCAA regional.

Every place changes and grows over time. But I’m not sure anyplace remakes itself the way Dallas does. Buildings and homes rise and fall and rise and fall and rise … People buy multi-million-dollar houses, only to tear them down and build bigger houses costing more multi-millions. It’s crazy.

One thing I was not prepared for this time was the change on the nighttime downtown skyline, which used to be defined by this:

Dallas’ Green Monster, 1985-2013

This building opened in 1985, shortly before I arrived to work here. I can’t remember what the actual name of the building was back then, but today it’s the Bank of America Plaza. Since its opening, the building was lit up at night with the green tubes, leading to its nickname, “The Green Monster.” So imagine my shock this evening, as I drove into the city at dusk and encountered this:

The Purple … what? 2014

I don’t know what people have nicknamed this. The Purple People Eater? The work, I’ve discovered, was done last summer, during — what else? — a multi-million-dollar renovation.

One thing that’s being drilled into everyone’s heads this week is that the Final Four is being played in “North Texas.” Not Dallas. North Texas. Not Arlington, which is actually where the games will be played. North Texas. Folks outside of Dallas are sensitive about this, because Big D overshadows everything else in these parts. Thirty-five miles away, Fort Worth is treated like an afterthought, which is hardly fair for a city of nearly 800,000 residents. But Dallas has 1.25 million, and it got infamous for being the site JFK‘s assassination, and then it got dubiously famous as the title and site of a TV show, currently resurrected in all its schmaltzy glory, featuring the scoundrel J.R. Ewing. Arlington actually is a suburb, sitting smack in the middle between the two big cities, but it has all the big venues — Six Flags, The Ballpark at Arlington and the AT&T Stadium, aka the Palace O’ Jerry, home of the Dallas Cowboys football team (owned by Jerry Jones) and their world famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. AT&T is where the Final Four games will lbe played.

The last time the Final Four was here, it actually was played in Dallas, at Reunion Arena, which no longer exists. In true Dallas style, it was torn down and replaced by American Airlines Arena. But even though the games are in Arlington, the hub of activity is Dallas. It’s where the media is being housed, where the National Association of Basketball Coaches will conduct their annual convention party, where the NCAA bosses will be headquartered, where the three-day outdoor music festival will take place, featuring (in no particular order), Tim McGraw, The Killers, Jason Aldean and Bruce Springstreen and the E Street Band, among others. For free. If you can get within a mile of the stage, good luck.

UPDATE: Friday night, I went out to dinner in Uptown with some friends. We entered the pub before sunset. We came out late and the monster was green again. I asked around, and it turns out the thing is now programmed to change colors. For what it’s worth.

Author: Kirk Wessler

Kirk Wessler is executive sports editor/columnist and has worked at the Journal Star since 1987. A graduate of Bradley University, he previously worked at the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune and Dallas Times-Herald. Wessler's work has won numerous awards from Associated Press Sports Editors, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Illinois Press Association and Illinois Associated Press. He is former president of the USBWA. Follow him on Twitter @KirkWessler.
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